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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

In the Beginning - Reasons why President George W Bush Wrote His Memoirs along with the Effects of His Presidency

President George W. Bush has stated in his introduction to his book that more than a dozen distinguished historians have recommended to him that "They felt it was important that I record my perspective on the presidency, in my own words." said George W. Bush. When I read this, I was instantly surprised of the comment, since people have already provided proof that states George W. has plagerized passages from others in his book. I was only 30 seconds into the book, just reading the introduction when George W. Bush states this, and I already have something to write about.
For future reference, I will refer to President George W. Bush as George W, and will also refer to his father, President George H.W. Bush as George H.W. For the most part, our present Commander and Chief, President Barack Obama will be referred as President in my articles, except for non-formal referrals of the name.
George W. definitely has his motives for writing the book, mainly because distinguished historians told him that he must write it, but what about his style. He himself states, "Like Grant, I decided not to write an exhaustive account of my life or presidency. Instead I have told the story of my time in the White House by focusing on the most important part of the job: making decisions." What a loaded statement. I can see already from this point that I should have lots to write about.
Maybe his statement here should include the main reasons why he doesn't want to provide an exhausting account to the people. Does he have something to hide? Most likely. If he tried to be up front and write about things that people really don't know about, or things he 'failed to act on', or the things people really want to know about, the book would be much longer in length. But George W. does not want any of the questions to surface. He wants to go back in hiding gracefully, sort of speaking after signing the book and attending a few interviews.Only 480 pages or so, compared to almost 600 pages by others. For a man who occupied the White House for 8 years, you would think that he has so much more to say, and try to clear up his name a little better. Maybe his book should have been about why he made all of the decisions that he made, or the decisions that he didn't make. It is understandable that being a conservative president would mean you would have less to act on, and more to be inactive on. But the least he should do is be upfront. Maybe he is being upfront on the issues in the cases that he presents in the book itself, but knowing how he 'failed to act on' issues within his presidency, how could I expect him to be 100% straight-forward in his memoirs. George W. has obviously referred to others whom he copies information from, and that takes up a considerable part of his book. In this sense, he did not let me down in the book, because the plagerized information definitely illustrates that information presented may be factual.
Then there are George W's goals on writing his book. He states that there are two main reasons for the book. First, he wants to demonstrate to the readers what it is like to serve as President for 8 consecutive years. But in the same breath, George W. believes that "it would be impossible to reach definitive conclusions about my presidency-or any recent presidency, for that matter-for several decades" claims George W. So George W. believes that he has the people of the United States stumped on his presidency. So for me, why read the book. He is telling me that I won't get it even after I read his book. Again, who knows. He may be right. It may take decades for people to actually discover the truth that he fails to present in his memoirs, just because he doesn't present all the facts in his book. Instead, he believes that "the passage of time allows passions to cool, results to clarify, and scholars to compare different approaches," says George W. Yes, it will be a history lesson, one that most people would likely want to forget.

And now, a note directed to George W.... Here are my statements to you, Mr. President ....

Don't get me wrong George W. I truly believe you did the best you can do serving as president, but it seems that this country just needed more, to help prevent all the trying times that they had to endure during your presidency. As far as your book goes, I believe that it is proper here that you write a second book, which would be a continuation of your memoirs. Please include all the things that you left out. You may think that it is not important to you, but it is important to the citizens of this country that deserve and have a right to know this information.
As far as information that we already know, for example about 911, I sincerely believe that 911 could have been avoided if you didn't 'fail to act', as you were informed by your advisors that such an attack may be emminent. But you dismissed the information submitted by your Central Intelligence agency, who eventually became your number 1 mountain of mis-information. You did not have any reservations when your agencies told you that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You were quick to respond to Central Intelligence information after 911 became reality and started dealing with the terrorists that were believed to be responsible for the attacks, but not quick enough prior to 911. But you are quick to state your claim that while you were president after 911, this country was never attacked again. Then you honestly believe that conducting the war on terrorism the way that you did, along with torture administered to your so called enemy was justified. Then you claim only 3 terrorists received 'water-boarding'. Moments like the Abu Ghurayb Prison torturing prisoners of war is more likely proof that there had to be more than just three prisoners tortured. How can you believe that. President Obama thinks otherwise. To him, torture is a crime. You openly profess this crime in your book and in your interviews. Maybe you missed a few history lessons George W., but this country hasn't been attacked on a larger scale until 911 since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. It is true that this country suffered from similar attacks, for example the Atlanta Olympics, Oklahoma City and most recent before 911 would have been the 1993 World Trade Center bombing which is considered an attack on U.S. soil.
Are you going to take the credit for that since the second World War? You may not have been able to prevent Hurricane Katrina for hitting New Orleans, but you could have responded in a proper manner to help the desperite people whos lives were destroyed. The closest you came to the disaster site was to peak at the catastrophe from Air Force One's window. The banks wouldn't have failed if you would not have 'failed to act' in time before the stock market crash, but you had to act conservatively. Then you finally went against your conservative beliefs just before you left office when T.A.R.P was born. As they say, a day late and a dollar short. The country was already experiencing a fast downward spiraling effect that many people will never recover from. When the stocks fell Mr. President, my 401K plan diminished by $17,000. Luckily I recovered the initial monies, but the gains I would have made during the times of the so called 'second depression' are lost forever. Mr. President, did you loose any money or was your retirement to civilian life harmed because of the bank failures and the stock market plunges? The Afghanistan and Iraqi wars would have never happened if Al Gore were President. Of course, this is my speculation. I just feel that a President Al Gore wouldn't have started either war and put U.S. soldiers in harms way. That, along with thousands of lives lost would still be living. Yes, Sadaam Hussein most likely would still be living, but on the other hand, you must be proud that you totally destroyed another country, totally ruined their economy, and responsible for hundrends of thousands of civilian lives. They may be better off right now because of the U.S. invasion in your mind, but how about asking all of the Iraqi families that lost lives of their loved ones in a war that you started. And this is not even the main point. I would think that you would want to protect your own soldiers first, not putting them in harms way on the other side of the world, fighting a long drawn out war and terrorists that now paint targets on Americans. These lives wouldn't have been lost if Iraq were not attacked, and then on false pretenses, just because your accurate Central Intelligence agency provided you with more mounds of mis-information.
So you think that it would take decades before people actually know what happened during your presidency, and you expect people to forgive you for your actions, or the lack of. You are wrong Mr. President. Proof in the pudding is this blog. Not even a few weeks have gone by, and you do not have me fooled. Others who read this blog will not be fooled either. But history has it that people do forget, and that is what you hope for. Your popularity will increase, as all past presidents do after they leave office, but what you fail to remember is that peoples lives will forever be effected by your actions or 'your failure to act' as the 43rd President of the United States. Sleep tight George W.